In which Simon assumes control of the One Life Left radio bus, Ste cowers in the front seat and peers between his fingers, and Ann makes out with boys on the back seat.

Welcome to #76, in which three important announcements are made. We’ll blog them in detail later in the week but I don’t think it’s a spoiler to those announcements concern:

i)                    The WINNER of One Life Left’s most popular competition ever, to name a Beer at Nottingham Game City

ii)                  One Life Left’s amazing, unique, ill-advised event at Nottingham Game City

iii)                Ste’s absence next week.

Which is why Simon’s driving this week. To learn, you know. It wouldn’t be One Life Left if the preparation wasn’t ill-considered and last-minute.

To alleviate the pressure / add to the complexity, we have a guest for the first time in Season 4. Ellie “Gibbo” Gibson returns to the airwaves to amuse, entertain and talk about videogames. We are lucky to have her. We (abruptly) welcome a new feature, too – ‘The Best Worst Games You’ve Never Played’ by Mathew Kumar. We’re looking for a jingle for that segment so if you can provide, get in touch. And the regulars are all present and correct too – poetry, gambling, chart musings and more.

Music this week:

The Suspense Is Killing Me – Boy 8-Bit
Shempi – Ratatat
Electric Touch (Mighty Mi / Stev1der Mix) – Kanye West v. MGMT
Toejam & Earl Bumpin’ OC Remix

Ok. See you soon!

Ste, Simon and Ann xxx

Yo, gaming tough guys the broadcast / podcast world over, know this: One Life Left has never been afraid of making enemies. Our independence allows us that freedom. We can say what we want about whoever we want and still be sure we'll continue to not receive free things in the post (please send us free things in the post). We're a videogame show with principles. Our main principle is that because we don't have the opportunity to sell out you can be sure that we haven't.

So yeah, we're tough. Last week on the blog, though, we chose to pick on the wrong people. We stepped outside our videogame comfort zone and chose to pick on men with bikes. And this week, The Bike Show acted exactly how you might imagine The Bike Show would: with grace and humour, inviting us on to the last five minutes of their (professionally produced, diligently prepared, also podcast) show. You join us just after our unexpected backie, three presenters giddy from a magical bike ride through Resonance FM.

So, allow us a moment to calm down and then enjoy the news, the features, the music (see below) and the epic, astonishing letters section featuring actual post. And enjoy the post-production too, since this is a recut of Season 4, Episode 3, largely deglitched. If you feel like you're missing out you should really tune in live but actually, this time the podcast listeners get the better deal: the new feature (no spoilers) is here in full, the victim of a dodgy last-minute CD burn in the FM-broadcast show. It is excellent.

With luck we'll have another new feature next show and our first guest of the season. Maybe even the Nottingham announcement we've been teasing you with for some time. Do enter the competition, and write to us using our contact for or at the address in the show -- your letters are consistently brilliant and make us happy.

Music: Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle / the Mountain Goats and Kaki King
PUBLIKUM / Stay Ali
Magical 8bit Tour / YMCK
Street Fighter II Sly Thai Guy OC Remix / Kaijin

All to be added to our music links page imminently. Do let people know about the show if you think they should know about the show and keep checking the blog for irregular / nonsenseical updates. We'll see you in a week.

A rambling preamble in lieu of the one that we can't do now we're back on Resonance: You know, knowing your own mind isn't as easy as it sounds. You need to know something about everything. But there are lots of everythings in the world and you're expected to have something to say about them all. Sometimes you already hold an opinion on something, sometimes the opinion you hold emerges when you begin to speak and sometimes you arrive at the point where you need to have an opinion and you're still none the wiser on what that opinion should be. Like, for example, when you're considering second hand games, or zoo animals, or whether you should go to the park alone.

ENOUGH. Features, music, news, gossip, nonsense, regret, vague attempts to get listeners arrested. The second episode of series two was plagued by technical problems most of which have mysteriously vanished for the podcast. If you are that hot for awkward silences, miscued tracks and giggles I suggest you tune in for the live broadcast (7pm, Monday evenings, Resonance FM). Some things can't be fixed in post: there is no still no telephone guest so if you're tuning in for the promised hot phone chat you'll have to wait until next week. And we still don't talk about games enough.

Songs for #74:

Kickle's Processional -- The Depreciation Guild
Arkanoid 1999 (2000 Remix) -- Chris Abbott
TLC / No Scrubs -- Copy
Breaking Out (Demo) -- The Protomen

Oh, and you only have three days left to vote. We are not going to win this vote without some kind of Titanic effort, so go find a cruiseship and crash it into iceberg. Metaphorically. If you loved us you'd do that. We'd do it for you.

Subscribe on iTunes, write to us, join our Facebook group, all that kind of thing. Thanks!

Kick, punch, you all remember…

Hello. We’re back. It has been too long, except it’s like we’ve never been away.

News. Music. Reviews. Five features. Three overexcited presenters. Gossip and rumour, salacious implication, momentary regret, six shrugged shoulders and quickly on to something different.

Today: new engineers, new babies, new plans, the red ring of death, Atari, Nottingham GameCity, songs to fall in love to and repeated pleas for you all to email gma@intentmedia.co.uk and vote for us in the GMAs. Do that, do that now. We are the rank outsiders but it would be excellent if we beat the BBC, and all that might take is a couple of clicks from you.

Enough. Click to listen, go on iTunes to subscribe, explore the new website, send us an email and join our Facebook. This is One Life Left. We are back, and we will be hanging out with you for a while, if you don’t mind. Tell the world.